A Wizard in King Caspian's Court
by embraidery
Summary: Charlie Weasley finds himself on the Dawn Treader.


_A/N: My one-shot Dragon Expert, in which Charlie is on the Dawn Treader, is one of my more popular fics. I've decided to extend it into a multichap! So this is starting from the beginning._

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As with many good adventures, this one began when Charlie went to the beach. He was going to visit his family for a few weeks over the summer, but he wanted to spend some time alone before he went home. He began by buying a swimming suit and towel and heading to the coast. He remembered when he got there that he didn't love swimming in the ocean and getting salt water in his eyes, so he went for a hike along the clifftops. Two miles turned into five turned into ten, and before he knew it, Charlie had arrived at the outskirts of a muggle village. He stood on the clifftops, watching the non-magical fun, before picking his way down the rocks to the beach.

From his vantage point, still fairly high above water level, he could see a couple of young teenagers talking by the water. Two of them went in, followed at a distance by the third. The only girl in the group was a very strong swimmer, he noticed, and quickly pulled ahead of the others. He made his way down to the beach and walked in slowly, getting used to the temperature and the water making its way into his swim trunks. When the water reached his hips, Charlie dove into the water and swam under a wave, opening his eyes to look at the fish flickering around him.

Charlie held his breath for as long as he could, swimming with strong strokes away from the beach. He definitely hadn't grown up swimming, but a muggleborn friend convinced him to take lessons at her pool, and he was strong from carrying enormous slabs of meat around all day. He quickly caught up to the teenagers. He didn't pay much attention to them, instead doing underwater handstands, until he noticed the girl thrashing in the water as though she were drowning. He swam over to her as quickly as possible and tried to pull her to the surface, but one of her companions was underwater, pulling her down. The three of them struggled together, Charlie pulling her upwards with all his might. Her own struggles made it harder to help her and they were getting nowhere. Her other companion swam towards them and tried to pull the other boy off her, but a wave came up and shoved them all under.

There were so many arms and legs thrashing around Charlie. He had no idea which way was up and which was down as the wave tumbled them towards the shore as if they were kids rolling down a hill. He nonverbally cast a spell to give himself a bubble of air around his face, then cast bubbles around the muggles' faces. Then he tried to relax and let the wave carry him.

When they re-emerged from the sea and took big gulps of air, Charlie thought they must have gotten even more turned around than he thought. The familiar English coastline was nowhere in sight. The sky was suddenly bluer, he thought, and empty of clouds. Charlie twisted around in the water. He still couldn't see the coastline. He frowned and spun around again and again, but it didn't reappear. He glanced at the three younger teenagers. The boy who had been pulling the girl under the water was sputtering and coughing - Charlie didn't feel bad for him - while the other two were pushing wet hair out of their faces and spitting out water.

"Look!" The girl pointed out a blob on the horizon. "What is that?"

They all strained their eyes to see. "I think it's a ship!" the not-awful boy said. Once it had been pointed out, Charlie could see that that was a very good guess. As it got closer, they could see the big canvas sails.

"Should we swim for it?" the same boy asked.

The girl looked at the ship. "I don't know how far away it is, but it might be better to float for a while." She looked at the nasty boy. "I don't know how far Eustace can swim."

"I'm right here," he mumbled.

Charlie treaded water and watched the ship get nearer. It was moving relatively slowly. "We could swim breaststroke for a while and then float until they get nearer."

"Okay," said the girl. "What's your name?"

"Charlie Weasley," he replied automatically. "Yours?"

"I'm Lucy. This is Edmund and Eustace." She inclined her head at each of the two boys in turn.

"Pleased to meet you. I think I'll start swimming, if that's okay…?" Charlie said.

"Of course!" Lucy looked out at the ship again. "Let's go." She went first, then Edmund and Charlie, then Eustace. Charlie look deep breaths and focused on swimming as gently as possible. They'd only been in the water for about five minutes before a pod of dolphins came up to investigate. Charlie had never seen a dolphin in person before. They were much bigger than he expected, and it was a little intimidating to be surrounded by this pod. The dolphins seemed pretty friendly, though, gently nosing the swimmers. All of them but Eustace stopped swimming and gently stroked the dolphins' smooth skin.

Eustace finally seemed to notice that the rest of the group had stopped swimming. "What are you waiting for?" he called, before apparently deciding that engaging with them wasn't worth it and continuing on his own.

Two of the dolphins maneuvered themselves to be on either side of Lucy and gently pressed her between them, swimming ahead and carrying her with them. Charlie gave the nearest dolphin a final stroke and followed Lucy.

In the end, they only had to swim for about ten minutes. Then they floated for five and waved wildly at the boat. There were answering shouts and a scuffle before a smaller boat was lowered into the water. There was one man and one smaller figure in the boat, and it moved towards them fairly quickly. They were all hauled into the boat. It took a second for Charlie to get settled, and then when he did, he realised that the smaller figure was a mouse about two feet tall. He wore a hat with a feather and a miniature sword in a miniature scabbard at his waist.

"Reep!" Lucy cried.

Charlie tried his best not to stare at the mouse, but it was hard, especially when he began to speak.

"Good morning, Queen Lucy, it is lovely to see you again!" He turned towards Charlie and Eustace. "I beg the honour of introducing myself as Reepicheep," the mouse said, sweeping an elegant bow. "I know Their Majesties, of course, but I have not had the honour-"

"Eww, a mouse!" Eustace screeched, and Reepicheep retired to the other end of the boat, deeply offended.

"Ignore him, he's a brat," Edmund told Reep, inclining his head towards Eustace. "We'd have drowned him if we could, to be honest-"

"Edmund," Lucy reprimanded quietly, and Edmund shut up.

"I'm sorry," Charlie said, still reeling from the whole situation, "but you already know each other?" If it were not for the talking mouse, he would have said that they'd maybe hit their heads and gotten disoriented, then gotten rescued by a...troupe of historical reenactment nerds?, but the talking mouse meant this was magic of a kind Charlie had rarely encountered. Were they particularly eccentric wizards?

"Oh, forgive me," Lucy said. Her hair was sopping wet and she was very disheveled, but she was suddenly lit up from inside with joy. "This is my good friend Reepicheep, and we are in Narnia!"

"We came to Narnia awhile ago," Edmund explained, "and had all sorts of adventures, and then Aslan sent us home-"

"-Aslan's a talking lion, he's wonderful-"

"-and then we came back and fought a war, and that's when we met Reep-"

"-and we met King Caspian, what a darling-"

"-and we didn't know if we would ever come back again," Edmund finished. He looked at Reep. "Are you with Caspian?"

The man with the oars had been rowing silently the whole time, but he spoke up and said, "Yes, we are with His Majesty. I'm sure he will explain it when we get back to the boat."

Lucy clasped her hands to her heart. "Oh, Edmund, can you believe it?"

They exchanged a wordless glance that seemed to Charlie to say a great deal that he could not read.

"What a bunch of nutters," Eustace grumbled from the back of the boat. The rest of the occupants of the boat came to an implicit agreement just to ignore him.

"What is the magic like in this land?" Charlie asked.

Lucy and Edmund exchanged another glance, and Lucy shrugged. "It's all kinds. The first time we were here, we met Father Christmas, and he gave us all gifts. Mine was a healing cordial."

"Many of the creatures here are Talking Beasts," Edmund added.

"And then there's Aslan, of course. He's got something all his own. He came back to life."

Charlie shook his head, mouth slightly open. "Fascinating."

Edmund gave him a keen-eyed look. "You don't seem very surprised."

Charlie wasn't sure how to answer that. "Always sort of thought there was magic out there, I suppose." He cleared his throat. "How did we get here?"

Edmund and Lucy shrugged. "Magic," Edmund said, and "Aslan," said Lucy.

"The first time it was a wardrobe," Lucy said, "and Ed didn't believe me for ages, he was _very _nasty about it-"

"-oh come off it, Lucy, that was a long time ago-"

"-and last time we got home when Aslan made a door in the air."

By then they'd made it back to the boat and the man with the oars had called up for a ladder. All of them clambered up the ladder to the deck above.

"Caspian!" Lucy exclaimed. She ran towards a young man with a shining fall of golden hair, but stopped just in front of him, realising that she was still dripping.

"Queen Lucy, King Edmund!" Caspian bowed, keeping his eyes very carefully off to the side, and Lucy remembered that she was in a swimming suit that was extremely immodest by Narnian standards.

"Could we get some blankets?" Caspian asked. In the meantime, he gave Lucy his cloak and she wrapped it around herself. "Let's all go in and have some mead."

"Oh, yes, please!" Lucy exclaimed.

"So who are your friends?" Caspian asked Lucy and Edmund as the mead and goblets were passed around. The four of them who had had a dunking were wrapped snugly in wool blankets. The mead wasn't quite the same as the mead Charlie was used to, but it was surprisingly close considering that it was from a whole different world. His throat felt pleasantly warm.

"This is Charlie," Lucy said, indicating Charlie, "and this is our cousin Eustace."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Caspian said, inclining his head to both of them.

Lucy looked solemnly across at Charlie. "This is King Caspian the Tenth."

Charlie felt suddenly discomfited in the presence of a king, even though the king was younger than Charlie was and seemed a very pleasant person.

Eustace took his first sip of mead and made a face. "Is this alcohol? Harold and Alberta don't believe in drinking alcohol."

Edmund rolled his eyes. "Don't drink it if you don't like it."

"I won't drink it then," Eustace said, setting the goblet back down. "Where am I going to be staying on this dump?"

Caspian and Edmund looked like they wanted to stand up, hands going to their scabbard (or where Edmund's scabbard would be if he had one), but Lucy cut her eyes at them and they sat back down.

"You will be staying down below," the man who had rowed them in answered. "I can show you." He waited for Eustace to stand up before leading him down below.

"Thank god," Edmund said.

Lucy ran her fingers over the elaborate metalwork on her goblet, saying nothing.

"Oh, Lu, come on. He's such a prig."

"I _know_, Ed, but…" Lucy sighed. To Charlie, she said, "We don't get along with his parents very well. They're…"

"Idiots," Edmund supplied.

"...Unusual." Lucy took a sip of mead. "So, Caspian, we haven't heard why you're on a boat!"

The conversation flowed easily from there, as did the mead and wine. Partway through the cook brought out some bread and meats for a simple but delicious lunch, and they talked late into the afternoon. Eventually Caspian clapped his hands together.

"I think it's time to show you your rooms." He led them downstairs. "This is my cabin - Lucy, you can stay here. And this is where the rest of us will stay." Eustace was already in there, being quiet, but as soon as they all came in he started moaning.

"Oh, I feel so seasick," he whinged.

The four of them let an awkward beat fall.

"So all of you can borrow some of my clothes," Caspian said. "They'll be a little big on you, Lucy, but I'm afraid there are no women on the ship…"

"Yes, and why is that, Caspian?" Lucy asked. Her voice was light and pleasant, but with an edge of steel to it. She, Edmund, and Caspian walked out of the cabin, talking, as Charlie looked around where he was going to be sleeping for the next indeterminate amount of time. It was small, but not claustrophobically so. The wood paneling was old but beautifully varnished, and the coverlets on the bunk beds were a rich crimson colour. Charlie left the cabin and explored the rest of the ship. The belly of the ship was beautiful and dappled with bluish light from the portholes. Charlie couldn't believe he was so lucky as to end up in another world and on this ship - though Lucy would probably call it Aslan's influence rather than luck.

He headed back to their cabin, stopping by Caspian's cabin first to borrow some clothes. Everything was simple but gorgeous, and the fabrics were much better woven than any fabric Charlie had seen before. He ended up in a rich green tunic and sturdy brown leggings. He hung up the wet wool blanket and his trunks in the cabin. His wand hadn't fallen out of the special wand-pocket in his trunks, and he took it out and examined it. It was still a little damp, so he gently rubbed it with a corner of the blanket, careful not to make it give off sparks. He glanced at Eustace, who seemed to be napping, and cast _lumos_. The wand lit up just fine, so he tucked it into the hem of his pants. He would have to ask Caspian for a belt pouch of some sort.

Dinner was a more elaborate affair than lunch, but it was still limited by the fact that they were on a ship. All the fresh fruit and vegetables had already been eaten. Instead they had slices of dried fruit. Charlie had never had dried peaches before. He also tried slices of a deep blue fruit that tasted something like a mix of blueberry and plum. The main course was flatbread liberally sprinkled with seeds and a spicy lentil stew.

"It's a Calormene dish," Caspian told them. "I visited Calormen just before this journey, and the food is delicious."

"It's wonderful!" said Lucy. Eustace grunted and Edmund shot him a glare.

After dinner, the group minus Eustace settled into Caspian's cabin to play cards. The bed was somewhere between a single and a double, so they had a laughingly good time fitting the four of them into the small bed with room to spare for the cards. Caspian and the Pevensies taught Charlie how to play Dragonsbreath before Charlie and the Pevensies taught Caspian Snap. The party dwindled as the lantern did until the oil was almost entirely burned up. The boys all bid Lucy goodnight and tumbled into the other cabin.

"No consideration of noise or other people at all," Eustace mumbled, half-asleep.

"Oh shut up," Edmund said good-naturedly. "Goodnight Caspian, goodnight Chuck!"

"Goodnight!" Charlie said. He rolled himself up in his blanket and settled in for a good night's sleep.


End file.
